WPL aims to scale new heights in 2nd season, assumes greater significance in World Cup year

The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) turned out to be roaring success last year and was a major upgrade from the Women’s T20 Challenge that the BCCI used to organise on the sidelines of the Indian Premier League (IPL). With the tournament set to become a multi-city affair this time around, the BCCI can be hopeful of the second edition turning out to be just as big as the first one, if not bigger.

The second season of the Women’s Premier League gets underway from Friday, 23 February with defending champions Mumbai Indians squaring off against the Delhi Capitals in what will be a rematch of last year’s summit clash. Both teams had finished on 12 points each at the end of the league stage with the Meg Lanning-led Capitals securing the top spot thanks to their superior Net Run Rate (NRR). MI, led by India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, would thrash UP Warriorz in the Eliminator before pulling off a comfortable chase against the Capitals in the final to be crowned inaugural champions.

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With the amount of talent at their disposal as well as the aura around two standout leaders in Lanning and Harmanpreet, both MI and DC will back themselves to go all the way in the second edition as well. However, other teams have also bolstered their squads with some notable purchases in the auction and have also made some personnel changes that should make the tournament a lot more interesting.

Action shifts to Bengaluru and Delhi

Additionally, the tournament moves out of Mumbai this year and takes place in Bengaluru and Delhi. The inaugural edition had taken place in Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium and the neighbouring DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, with the former hosting the final. The 22 matches this year, however, have been evenly split between Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium and Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium.

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Bengaluru hosts the star-studded opening ceremony headlined by the Bollywood 'Badshah' Shahrukh Khan as well as Match 1 of the tournament while Delhi gets to host the playoffs.

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Home advantage thus could potentially translate to a title for the Delhi Capitals after a runner-up finish last season. It could even lead to an improved performance for the Smriti Mandhana-led Royal Challengers Bangalore, who like their male counterparts ended up underachieving despite boasting of some of the biggest names in women’s cricket in their ranks.

Mooney’s returns, Athapaththu and Tahuhu set for debuts

What will also make the second edition a lot more interesting is Beth Mooney's availability for the entire season as Gujarat Giants captain. The Australian opener had been ruled out of the inaugural season on the very first night after suffering a calf strain during last year’s opening game against Mumbai Indians.

Read | Players that have been ruled out of WPL 2024 and their replacements

Indian spin-bowling all-rounder Sneh Rana had to take over the reins of the team and the team ended up having an underwhelming campaign where they finished at the bottom of the table with six defeats in eight matches — the same as the Royal Challengers except Mandhana and Co avoided the last spot due to a better Net Run Rate.

With Mooney available for the entire season, however, along with Michael Klinger replacing Rachael Haynes as the head coach, the Giants will be confident of a turnaround this season after a forgettable debut.

Similarly, the UP Warriorz will be bolstered by the addition of Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu, who was among the top performers in the international circuit in 2023 and was also the second-highest run-scorer in the Women’s Big Bash League where she amassed 552 runs.

Read | Athapaththu believes in controlling the controllables, using rejection as motivation

The senior batting all-rounder had also played a central role in Sri Lanka’s 2-1 T20I series win in their tour of England last year, making it all the more perplexing as to why franchises ignored her in the player auction for a second year in a row.

Athapaththu, however, was ultimately included as a replacement for UP Warriorz’ Lauren Bell, and will aim to set the stage on fire this season. The Sri Lanka captain however, isn’t the only senior international making her WPL debut this season, with New Zealand’s Lea Tahuhu — who has 187 international wickets to her name from 173 international appearances — coming in as a replacement for Lauren Cheatle in the Gujarat Giants.

T20 World Cup adds to WPL’s significance

The second edition of the Women’s Premier League assumes extra significance due to the fact that the the Women’s T20 World Cup will be taking place in a matter of few months after the season concludes in March.

It was the other way round last year, in which the inaugural Women’s Premier League had taken place after the conclusion of the Women’s T20 World Cup, which took place in South Africa where Australia defeated the home team to retain their title. This time around, the ICC event is set to take place in Bangladesh, where the conditions will not be very different from those in India.

Team India have had their fair share of 20-over fixtures of late, against England and Australia at home on either side of New Year’s Eve, and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and head coach Amol Muzumdar will have a fair idea of what their squad for the T20 World Cup will look like.

The WPL might just come in handy on that front to help plug the gaps. Additionally, it could also help some of the uncapped Indian players realise their dream of joining the Women in Blue and representing the country.

UP Warriorz’ Vrinda Gautam, the second-most expensive uncapped Indian player at Rs 1.3 crore and Gujarat Giants’ Tarannum Pathan are a couple of such examples of players who will be hoping to make the most of the golden opportunity that is the WPL and make it count.